French Bulldog The difference between owners who insist their Doberman is stubborn and owners who insist theirs is borderline spooky almost never comes down to the dog. It comes down to whether anyone ever actually tested the thing.
Stubborn is usually just bored with an audience.
Dobermans sit near the top of nearly every working intelligence ranking ever published, which sounds flattering until you live with one. A dog that learns fast also learns things you never taught it, like which drawer holds the leash and what your car keys sound like from two rooms away.
So the owners who struggle tend to be the ones running the same three commands on a loop, waiting for brilliance to show up on its own. The ones who do not struggle put their dog in front of a problem and watch what happens.
That is all these seven challenges are. Small problems, a stopwatch, and about twenty minutes of your afternoon.
Grab some cheese. Let’s find out what you’re working with.
A Few Ground Rules Before You Grab the Treats
Run these when your Doberman is alert but not wired. Right after a walk is ideal. Right before dinner is a disaster, because a hungry Dobie solves every puzzle by screaming.
Do each challenge once. Only once.
Why Repeats Ruin the Score
These tests measure how your dog handles novelty, not how well it memorizes a game. Give a Doberman a second attempt and you are no longer testing intelligence, you are testing recall, and they will crush that every time.
Also: no coaching. No "good boy" halfway through. Sit on your hands if you must.
A dog that solves a puzzle because you helped has told you exactly one thing, which is that you are helpful.
1. The Towel Test
The classic. Toss a bath towel over your Doberman’s head so it fully covers the face and shoulders, then start counting.
Under 15 seconds is genius territory. Fifteen to thirty seconds is solidly clever. Past a minute, and you may have a dog who genuinely enjoys the towel and has decided this is naptime now.
What You’re Actually Watching
Speed matters less than method. A smart dog backs up, drops its head, and uses a paw with intent. A dog that just shakes wildly until physics intervenes is a different animal entirely.
Dobermans usually go for the reverse-and-drop trick, which is honestly a little unsettling to watch the first time.
2. The Cup Shuffle
Set out three cups upside down on the floor. Let your dog watch you slip a treat under the middle one.
Now slide them around slowly, keeping everything visible, then step back.
A high scoring dog goes straight to the correct cup on the first try. A middling dog checks two. A dog that flips all three and eats the treat anyway has arguably won, though not in the way we are measuring.
Make It Harder
Once you have your baseline, try it again on a different day with five cups. Some Dobermans track the movement so precisely it feels rigged.
3. The Barrier Problem
Find a baby gate, an open fence panel, or a couch pushed near a wall. Put a treat on the far side where your dog can see it but has to go around to reach it.
Then wait.
The dogs that shine here do something specific: they look at the treat, look at the gap, and turn away from the reward to get to it. That backwards logic is a real cognitive leap, and plenty of dogs never make it.
The Failure Mode Is Adorable
Dogs that struggle press their face into the barrier and whine directly at the food, as though sheer wanting will move it. Puppies do this constantly. Adults who still do it are telling on themselves a bit.
4. The Vocabulary Trap
Here is where Dobermans separate from the pack, and also where most owners discover their dog has been reading them instead of listening to them.
Stand in a normal position. In a completely flat, bored voice, say a word your dog does not know. "Refrigerator." "Basketball." Whatever.
Then, in that same flat tone with the same body language, say "walk" or "dinner" or whatever the magic word is in your house.
Reading the Result
If the ears go up only for the real word, congratulations, your dog knows actual vocabulary. If it reacts identically to both, your dog has been running on tone and posture this whole time.
That is not a tragedy. It just means your Doberman is a phenomenal reader of you, which is its own kind of smart.
The average dog understands about 165 words. The exceptional ones understand that you are lying to them about going to the vet.
5. The Brand New Trick
Pick something your dog has genuinely never done. Not a variation on sit. Something structurally new, like touching a specific object with its nose or backing up three steps on cue.
Now teach it, and count your repetitions.
Working breeds in the top tier tend to grasp a new command in fewer than five repetitions and obey a known command on the first try roughly 95 percent of the time. Dobermans live in that bracket comfortably.
Where It Gets Interesting
Watch for the moment the lightbulb goes on. Genius level dogs do not gradually improve, they hit a wall of confusion and then abruptly get it, all at once, and the shift is unmistakable.
Slower learners climb a gentle slope instead. Both get there. One just gets there in a way that makes you sit back on your heels.
6. The Vanishing Treat
Wedge a treat under a couch or low cabinet, deep enough that a snout will not reach but a paw will.
This is a persistence and tool-use test wrapped together, and it is my favorite because the strategies vary wildly.
The Three Types of Dobermans
Some dogs paw at it immediately, methodically, alternating sides until they hook it. Some try the nose, fail, and then problem solve. And a small number do something remarkable: they go get you, lead you to the couch, and stare pointedly.
That third one is not failure. Recruiting a human with opposable thumbs is arguably the highest score available.
7. The Point and the Glance
Sit on the floor with your dog a few feet away. Place two identical containers down, both with a treat, but only pretend to bait one.
Point at the correct container. Do not speak. Do not lean. Just point, hold it, and look at the container.
Why This One Matters Most
Following a human point is a social cognition skill that even chimpanzees are famously bad at. Dogs evolved into it over thousands of years of living beside us, and Dobermans, bred to work in close partnership rather than independently, tend to be exceptional at it.
A dog that follows the point on the first try is reading your intent, not just your hand.
Now try it with only your eyes. No pointing, no gesture, just a deliberate glance at the correct container.
If your Doberman follows your gaze and picks correctly, you can stop testing. You do not have a pet.
You have a dog that watches your face for information the way most dogs watch a food bowl, and you are going to spend the rest of its life being slightly outmaneuvered.
Keep score across all seven if you like, though I would not obsess over the total. Five out of seven is a very sharp dog. Seven out of seven means you should probably lock the pantry.